Monday’s pregame notes and lineups vs the Angels

*** James Paxton won’t throw a bullpen today. He’s still experiencing some triceps tightness. He was getting treatment on the triceps pregame. Not sure if that will bump him back a day or two for his next rehab start. It does seem like it would make it difficult for Paxton to start on Thursday in Brandon Maurer’s spot in the rotation.

“I’m not sure what the next step is, but if there is any soreness I know we’ll be very cautious,” manager Lloyd McClendon said.

McClendon will meet with trainers to figure out when he’ll throw his next bullpen session and move forward.

*** Taijuan Walker will throw a rehab start on Wednesday night at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.

*** There was no big reason for manager McClendon moving Mike Zunino up in the order.

“I’m just trying shake things and score some runs some kind of way,” he said. “We’ll put him in some RBI situations and see if he can click for us.”

McClendon admitted he was hesitant to moving him up in the order. He didn’t want to put Zunino in situations he wasn’t ready for. And that hasn’t changed.

“I’m still hesitant to do it. But we have to do something to try and balance things out. I’m just trying to being proactive.

*** McClendon is back having James Jones, Michael Saunders and Robinson Cano batting at the top of the order even with lefty Tyler Skaggs on the mound. He said it works okay today because Saunders hits lefties well and Skaggs hasn’t had as much success against lefties this season in a small sample size.

“I can’t say that I’d like to do this the majority of the time, I’d like to have other options,” he said. “We are looking for balance. I realize we don’t have a perfect line-up particularly when it comes to left-handers.”

Anaheim’s bullpen isn’t stacked with lefties either so it shouldn’t be a problem.

From earlier

Nick Franklin is back in the line-up and Michael Saunders is back batting second.